You’re So Money: The Skinny on Success

Cliff Notes with a kick Your potential is dazzling. Your will to succeed—a tireless force. So what will your pool-side reading look like this summer?

Check out "The Skinny on Success", part of a new series of short books on deep topics by entrepreneur Jim Randel, illustrated with stick figures, no less.

At first, cartoons seem like a flip way to approach a puzzle that the greatest minds in history have grappled with. (Can Bill, the unhappy stick figure CPA, succeed as a stand-up comic? Do we care?)

But Randel uses the conceit of striving for something you want to dig into the meatier issues that drive people to succeed.

Strength-training In comic-book format, he uses pithy quotes, new research and nuggets from seminal books—"Do You," by Russell Simmons; "Outliers," by Malcolm Gladwell—to strip success down to its nuts, bolts and gears.

Never mind about innate talent and intelligence. Success comes from the strength and skill you source from within: being true to what you love to do, working your bootie off, enduring discomfort and failure—and keepin' on keepin' on.

"Success is not just about what is visible," Randel writes. "The true keys to success—heart and will—cannot be seen a first glance."

Bottom line Need to boost your moxie? "The Skinny on Success" will kick you into gear. Hmmm… just like another short-and-sweet resource you love.